Gunther Update

Once again, it would seem that the Proximity Principal works for me... I took Gunther to the vet yesterday. The new vet. And I like him. A lot. He is taking a much more relaxed approach to treating Gunther's diabetes. No glucose curves (as he said, it is too stressful for the dog and for the owner), testing with urine-strips, not a blood glucose monitor. This matches my ideas on this case exactly. Gunther is a senior dog and I do NOT want his last months or years to be filled with needle pricks and many overnight stays at the vet's. I don't know how long he will be able to hang out with us, but I don't want it to be miserable for any of us. I return this afternoon to learn how to give him a shot and then we are off and running.

We are using Novolin-N insulin, 30 guage syringes (incidentally - one needs a prescription in NJ for syringes but NOT for insulin. Fascintating) and Keto-diastix. I have managed to find some good deals online for the syringes and the testing strips. So it will be just under $4 per day to treat Gunther's diabetes; two shots - one urine test.

We spilt his food into two servings, he gets one third in the morning and the remaining two thirds in the evening. He is allowed to have protein snacks through out the day. He can even have a little peanut butter if we buy him the natural peanut butter - the other has too much sugar.

To help track everything I downloaded a program called Diabetes Logbook X (sorry windows users - this is a mac-only application). This is FREEWARE and was developed by a mother to track her young (3-1/2 years old) son's medicines etc. Geek that I am can't just keep track in a notebook like the rest of the world, LOL! I plan to donate to Diabetes UK at the developer's request...